Thread: Motivation Problem and Falling Asleep without realizing

So, before I go to bed, I'm excited about WILDing in the middle of the night.
When I do wake up for my WBTB, I hardly want to get up. When I do, I just use the restroom and climb back in bed. Then I start my relaxing process. (Focusing on my breathing a bit, which I make slow and steady) A few minutes later, I just don't care and forget what I'm doing. I move randomly, but when I realize it it's too late. Before I know it, I wake up the next day and regret my failed attempt.
Any tips on that?

Oh and also any tips on what I can do to stay aware? I'm using Mancon's WILD method he has in his guide, but I'm just not really sure on how to stay aware enough.
Thanks!

It's only natural to experience these involuntary fails. It's like saying: hey, every time you grab your phone, look up. Your brain is telling in the middle of the night that you must go to sleep, especially with low/no light sources around. It's a primitive mechanic that you're fighting against

Try becoming more awake. If you're doing relaxation processes and appear to have no problems falling back into sleep, then turn out a light or something, throw water into your face, do some mathematical simple exercises, like 2x8, 8x4, or come take a peak into Dreamviews (the real one ofc xD), which may make you feel extra motivated.

About WILD, you're probably too unfocused. It's not really your fault, since even WILD takes practice. The goal is to become aware of the images,thoughts,sounds that appear in your head, but not to focus on them. In your particular case, you're relaxing way too much. Try counting backwards from 100 to 0 several times until you make sure you don't drift away. If you fail, start again from 100. At some point, your body will just give up and start becoming numb. It's hard to explain, but you'll notice a change on awareness, like for sure one part of you is clearly falling asleep. If you need to pause for a second and think "I am awake, and will enter a dream soon" to maintain yourself awake, do so.

Hope this helps, for last, remember that it's way easier to perform a WILD by solving the problem "I'm falling asleep too fast" than the contrary, so you got the upper hand. Good luck!

Okay thank you! A new worry just came to me though - what if I'm awake for too long?
I've done something like this once (the counting) and I was awake for a little over an hour with only slight numbness.

Well I totally forgot to set my WBTB alarm. Here's to tonight!

It may be that you're waking in the middle of Non-REM, try adjusting the time of your alarm by around 15 minutes, if you wake from REM you will feel much more alert and more likely to be successful .

About motivation, is there anything you REALLY want to do in a lucid? If you think about that right after you wake up for your WILD attempts, then you'll feel motivated, even if only a little. It just takes a bit to force yourself to get over that desire to go back to bed. I can't advise you much on the actual WILD process, though, since I suck at WILDs. Good luck.

As zoth00 said, you are probably not awake enough. I would not go back to bed to do relaxation - you are already relaxed enough from just being asleep. Experiment with staying up anywhere from 5 - 60 minutes. Engage in activities, that use your logical thinking. I usually read DV, other peoples dreams or books on DV to get me motivated. Read some threads like "1000 things to do in LD" to get ideas and make a plan what you are gonna do in your LD. Write it down in your DJ. Stay up, until you think clearly, but you are still sleepy.

I thought that if you went on the computer at night, it would wake you up too much?

Many people go on computer, but you have to try for yourself. But only do stuff related to lucid dreaming. The goal is to wake up enough, so when you go back to bed, you will not fall asleep right away, but will have enough awareness to keep your mind awake, while body falls asleep.